Friday, September 21, 2012

WOMEN: ‘What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience, and Contraception’

'What Catholic Women Think About Faith, Conscience, and Contraception'

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CWN - September 21, 2012

The Ethics and Public Policy Center has conducted a survey on Catholic women's attitudes towards contraception.

"Critics of the Church's teaching propose an image of Catholic women fiercely and forever opposed to the Church's teaching on contraception, and suggest (wrongly) that nearly all Catholic women use contraception," according to a preliminary report on the survey.

The report added:

Our research found that up to one-third of church-going Catholic women (26-33%, depending on the question) hold mistaken beliefs about the Church's teaching on contraception. For example, 33% of Catholic women incorrectly believe that the Church teaches that couples have the right to decide the moral acceptability of contraception regardless of Church teaching. When presented with an accurate description of the Church's teachings on family planning, many Catholic women show reluctance to completely reject the Church's teaching …

While few Catholic women overall (13%) completely accept the Church's teaching, that number doubles (27%) among young (18-34) women who attend church every week. And it climbs still higher among women who both attend Mass weekly and have been to confession within the past year—37% of these women completely accept the Church's teaching.